NIA court sends 3 of 7 Udaipur murder's accused to NIA custody till July 12

|HT|

The designated National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Jaipur on Tuesday sent three of the seven accused arrested in Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal’s murder case to NIA custody till July 12 and sent the other four to judicial custody till August 1. On June 28, Mohammad Riyaz Akhtari and Gaus Mohammed hacked the neck of tailor Kanhaiya Lal for supporting former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s remarks on Prophet Mohammed and posted a video on social media saying that they are avenging an insult to Islam and triggering communal tension in Rajasthan.

The seven accused including Akhtari, Gaus, Mohsin, Asif, Mohammad Mohsin, Wasim Ali and Farhad Mohammad Sheikh were presented in the court on Tuesday amid tight security.

The court sent Akhtari, Gaus and Sheikh to NIA’s custody and the other four to judicial custody, said TP Sharma, special public prosecutor.

Besides the main accused Akhtari and Gaus, the others were arrested for their alleged involvement in the conspiracy. All the accused have been charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Earlier, they were sent to the NIA custody till July 12. Meanwhile, the NIA team on Tuesday conducted a search operation at the houses of probable suspects in Mukherjee Chowk area of Udaipur city. The team has also detained three-four persons and is interrogating them, said people familiar with the matter.

Akhtari and Gaus in their video posted after the crime also issued a threat to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as they proudly posed with the knives used in the murder. They are being interrogated about online groups propagating radicalisation that they were part of, and about their association with Karachi-based religious organisation Dawat-e-Islami. The central agency is also examining the phones and other devices of all the accused for information on their connections on social media and with international terror networks. Besides the Udaipur killing, the NIA is also probing the murder of a chemist in Maharashtra’s Amravati district last month.

The chemist, Umesh Kolhe (54), was also allegedly murdered for his social media posts backing Sharma’s remarks on the Prophet. The killing came a week before the tailor’s murder in Udaipur.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)